I bring to the attention of dear forum members the following business idea: picking berries and fruits with their further deep freezing, packaging and subsequent sale.
The idea is quite simple: purchase and deep-freeze berries/fruits in the summer season, package and sell them in the fall, winter and spring.
Many of us have dachas where we grow garden strawberries, cherries, currants, etc. After harvesting, some are rolled into compotes, some are cooked in the form of jams and preserves, and some we wash, put in a plastic bag and... that's right – freeze for the winter and store in the freezer.
Many, but not all. The larger the city, the less citizens are inclined to “plow” their dachas and are more inclined to buy necessary products in supermarkets. I think that the need for frozen berries and fruits during the off-season is quite great. Personally, when I walked through the supermarkets of my city, I did not find frozen berries and fruits.
For your information, berries and fruits, once frozen to a temperature of -25 degrees Celsius, when defrosted, retain most of the beneficial properties and vitamins they contain.
But first, about commercial benefits. This year cherries and currants were sold at a price of 60 rubles/kg, garden strawberries – 70 rubles/kg. These are wholesale prices with the necessary quality certificates for products. You can buy it cheaper from private sellers.
Looking at the first price list of a Moscow wholesale company selling frozen berries and fruits, I found the following prices:
Strawberries (300 gr.) – 40.21 or 134 rubles/kg.
Cherry (300 gr.) – 31.93 or 106.43 rubles/kg.
Currants (300 gr.) – 31.91 or 106.36 rubles/kg.
The equipment listed below allows us to process and store 36 tons of finished products per year. It turns out that if we invest 36,000 x 75 rubles in the summer. = 2,700,000 rubles, then during the year we receive 1,620,000 rubles of “dirty” profit from this deposit.
Let's move directly to the equipment and its cost.
(I’d like to point out right away that I calculated its cost and characteristics from websites. Therefore, naturally, I treated its characteristics and cost somewhat amateurishly - I took the first equipment that came across. But I think that if there are those who want to bring the idea to life, they will treat take the choice of equipment more seriously. In some places they will save money.)
So, you need the following equipment:
Deep freezing device (freezing unit) - allows you to freeze the necessary products in 3 stages (stage 1 - up to 0 degrees, stage 2 - up to -10 degrees, stage 3 - up to -30 degrees).
A device with a productivity of 50 kg per hour costs 5478 USD x 30 = 164340 rubles.
Refrigerator compartment for 240 m3 dimensions - 10 m x 8 m x 2.5 m - 12,739 USD x 30 = 382,170 rubles.
Split system: Rivacold FAL024Z002 4 pcs x 133230 = 532920 rub.
Dispenser DVDDP-3.0 (8 packets per minute) – 46,000 rub.
Packaging machine MUSP-01 – 22,000 rub.
Electrical consumption refrigeration chamber energy – 4.2 kW/day x 4 = 16.8 kW/day x 2.4 rubles x 300 days = 12096 rubles/year. (It will work all year with a planned stop closer to the summer for 65 working days. Sell everything early - earlier and stop.)
Electrical consumption energy of the freezing unit - 4 kW x 8 hours x 90 days = 2880 rubles / year (Will work season - summer.)
Total investment in equipment is 1,147,430 rubles. Expensive? Expensive, but the profit is expected to be good. In fact, the entire set of equipment pays for itself in just one season. In the future, it will bring good annual profits. In addition, the more you invest in organizing your business, the less you fear competition in the future.
How many workers are needed? I think there are a maximum of two: one is engaged in washing and drying berries and fruits, the other is in charge of freezing, packaging and storing in the refrigerator. Women and students are preferred.
I think the idea is clear. There is a lot to discuss about the complexities of this type of business – I think there are a lot of them. But the fact that the idea has a place is, in my opinion, beyond doubt.
Why not? How much production space do we need? 50 m2 for receiving berries, washing, processing, freezing and packaging, plus 80 m2 for installing a refrigeration chamber. Agree, any owner of a private house can provide such space for a business. This way we get rid of expensive rent.
I deliberately do not consider equipment for washing berries and fruits - you must admit, this is a small problem.
I am not considering certification issues for this type of business - I am sure that it is not difficult to solve.
I do not consider the problem of initial and working capital - for some, 100 rubles is money, but for others, a million is nothing. After all, what is 4 million? Good apartment or good credit.
I am not considering the problem of purchasing raw materials and marketing finished products - there are excellent books on economics, marketing, and trade.
not cooled down and still retaining the animal’s warmth (the temperature in the thickness of the thigh muscles is not lower than 35°C).
It is not used for cooking, since due to the processes of post-mortem rigor it is tough and also has an unpleasant odor, and when cooked it produces an unflavoured broth. Its structure is heterogeneous, its softness is uneven, and its moisture content is excessive. It is not subject to sale, which is also practically impossible in principle, since poultry meat is steamed for half an hour, and beef meat for 2 to 4 hours.
Probably, “steamed” is popularly used to refer to meat that has not been frozen.
Cooled down meat
cooled in natural conditions or in cooling chambers for at least 6 hours (the temperature in the thickness of the thigh muscles is not lower than 12°C) and covered with a thin drying crust, elastic to the touch.
Chilled
subjected to cooling to a temperature of 0 to 4°C (in the thickness of the thigh muscles), not wet to the touch, elastic. Chilled meat is elastic and has a darker color than cooled meat.
Cooling only slows down the process of rotting meat and the shelf life of chilled meat without packaging is a matter of days.
Chilled meat in vacuum packaging (a vacuum displaces oxygen, without oxygen the growth of bacteria slows down; if a certain amount of carbon dioxide is added to the packaging, the growth of bacteria slows down even more) can be stored for 8-10 weeks, a maximum of 120 days. There are technologies for using carbon dioxide that make it possible to achieve record shelf life, but in this case the meat can hardly be called chilled; rather, it is canned. The main difference between chilled meat and frozen meat is that in chilled meat, albeit at a slower pace, decomposition processes still continue.
Meat is an ideal environment for the proliferation of harmful bacteria, and only freezing is the way to stop this proliferation.
Frozen
subjected to freezing to a temperature not higher than minus 8°C (in the thickness of the thigh muscles). Frozen meat is stored in special freezers.
Dry (or shock) freezing
subjected to freezing in a stream of air at a temperature of minus 30-40°C, i.e. almost instantly. With this method of freezing, meat practically does not undergo denaturation (that is, it remains as if in its original form, without changing its properties during long-term storage) and can be stored at moderate refrigeration (about 0°C).
Deep frozen
frozen and stored at a temperature of minus 18°C and below. Deep-frozen beef can be stored for up to 1 year, pork - 6 months. This is the most reliable way to protect meat from exposure to bacteria.
Although there is an even more effective way of preserving meat products, known to Kitten Woof from the results of his interaction with the cutlet. But for “meat for a long time” this effective method is not suitable.
Frozen meat, subjected to defrosting to a temperature in the thickness of the muscle near the bone of about 0 ° C, in terms of indicators corresponds to (normally) chilled meat. Frozen meat is defrosted before further processing. When properly defrosted, high-quality frozen meat almost completely retains its original properties.
p.s. The myth about the healthfulness of fresh meat is very controversial. In addition to the fact that fresh meat itself is not healthy, not tasty and cannot be served on the counter, cooled or refrigerated meat, even with minimal violations of its storage/transportation/conditions during sale, can pose a serious threat to human health and life. Although frozen meat with the same violations of storage and transportation, and, as a consequence, partial defrosting and subsequent re-freezing, and re-freezing again, and so on ad infinitum, is also fraught with consequences. Choose, but carefully, but choose...
Features of organizing a warehouse with deep-frozen products
Deep freezing is one of the most popular storage conditions for some basic types of food products: meat and meat products, fish and fish products, frozen vegetables and fruits, ice cream, etc.
The main advantage of such conditions is the relatively long shelf life of the products. So, for beef it can be 1 year, for pork - 6 months, etc. This article discusses the basic rules that must be followed when handling and storing food products in deep-frozen conditions.
Deep frozen products
Deep freezing refers to the storage of food at an air temperature of -18 °C and below. Some categories of products (for example, ice cream) are stored at lower temperatures -24 °C and below. Currently, the storage of deep-frozen products is regulated by two main documents:
SP No. 4695-88 “Sanitary rules for refrigerators” dated September 29, 1988;
SP No. 2.3.6,1066-01 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for trade organizations and the circulation of food raw materials and food products in them” dated September 6, 2001, as amended on May 3, 2007.
Unfortunately, these standards are largely outdated.They do not take into account the capabilities of modern freezing equipment, the level of finishing of modern warehouses and the quality of packaging used today for storing deep-frozen products by foreign and Russian manufacturers. The storage conditions and periods for each specific type of product are determined in GOSTs or technical specifications (TU) developed for this type of product.
Reception of deep-frozen products
In modern warehouses, it is recommended to accept deep-frozen products using dock shelters. This is done to prevent warm air from the street from entering the car body and the storage area. Products are unloaded immediately inside the warehouse - into the expedition (reception) zone, where the temperature is maintained from O to +5 °C (not higher than +10 °C). There are no restrictions on unloading time, but qualified warehouse employees try to unload and release the car as quickly as possible. Abroad, refrigerators with a so-called sliding floor are often used to transport deep-frozen products. Using such devices, the driver can independently unload up to 30 pallets into the expedition area.The duration of this process does not exceed several minutes.
Immediately after the goods are unloaded into the forwarding area, they are identified, accepted (entered into the WMS database) and sent to the main storage area, where the temperature is maintained at -18 °C and below.
Difficulties in accepting deep-frozen products may arise for the following reasons:
non-compliance with temperature conditions for transportation;
the inability to read the barcode printed on the packaging with a scanner;
violation of the integrity of the packaging, discrepancy between the goods received in fact and the technical specification, etc.
1. Accompanying documentation,Almost all deep-frozen products during transportation are classified as perishable goods. According to the document “General Rules for the Transportation of Goods by Road” (as amended on May 21, 2007), in addition to the usual accompanying documents (Certificate No., invoice, CMR - if the goods are imported, etc.), such cargo must be accompanied by: veterinary certificate ( issued by the veterinary and sanitary inspection authorities), a quality certificate and a quality certificate, which indicates the actual temperature of the cargo before loading, its quality condition, and the condition of the packaging. In addition, when transporting perishable goods, the consignment note must indicate:
product temperature before loading;
temperature in the body of the refrigerator supplied for loading;
temperature in the body of the refrigerator that brought the products to the warehouse.
2. Failure to comply with transportation temperature conditions.If the employee receiving the products has suspicions that the temperature conditions may have been violated during transportation, he has every right to carry out an appropriate check. As a rule, during a random check, products are taken from the beginning, middle and end of the car body and 3-4 measurements are taken. The measurement results must be registered in the technical specification. If the temperature of the product turns out to be above -18 °C, you must immediately contact its owner, inform about the possible defrosting of the goods and jointly resolve the issue of the further fate of the cargo.
3. Difficulties in identifying cargo.Sometimes it is not immediately possible to accurately identify deep-frozen products. Therefore, it is very desirable that the warehouse WMS provide the ability to accept goods as unknown - upon such acceptance, they are assigned codes X0001, X0002, etc. After the product is recognized and fully identified, it is registered in the system as known, a label is made and affixed with the corresponding barcode.
If for any reason deep-frozen products cannot be immediately identified and accepted, then in any case it must be transported to the main storage area and only after that begin to understand the situation. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the requirement of SP No. 4695-88 “Sanitary rules for refrigerators” (clause 7.9), according to which products “in a contaminated state with obvious signs of spoilage, affected by mold or having foreign odors that are unusual for them” must be placed in a separate room specifically designed for storing defective goods.
Placing goods in warehouse
The basic principles that must be followed when storing food products are formulated in SP No. 2.3.6.1066-01 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for trade organizations and the circulation of food raw materials and food products in them.” According to this document, when storing food products, “the rules of commodity proximity and storage standards must be observed. Products that have a specific odor should be stored separately from products that perceive odors.” There are no clearer instructions regarding the commodity proximity of products in Russian regulatory documents today. However, it is considered (for example) that meat and meat products should not be stored in the same freezer compartment as fish or fish products. Today, a number of restrictions on product proximity are outdated - modern packaging for meat, fish, frozen vegetables, etc. almost completely prevents the penetration of any odors into the premises.
In this regard, the National Meat Association turned to Rospotrebnadzor with a request to clarify the rules for storing various products in the same room. The response letter stated that current legislation allows “the joint storage of frozen raw meat and raw fish and deep-frozen semi-finished products in industrial packaging.” At the same time, “it is not permitted to store raw foods and semi-finished products together with prepared food products.”
If there is a significant turnover of goods, it is advisable to trust the WMS to determine the location of a particular product item in the warehouse. When it comes to storing deep-frozen products, it is necessary to take into account the turnover of the product and its shelf life. The system tries to place goods with higher turnover and shorter shelf life as close to the expedition zone as possible. WMS determines the turnover of goods independently, the expiration date is indicated on the product label and is determined automatically by the system when reading the bar code or is entered manually by warehouse employees.
Collection of orders and shipment
Deep-frozen products have a significant shelf life, but it is recommended to minimize the time they are in the warehouse - this allows you to increase the residual shelf life. This circumstance must be taken into account when placing orders. First of all, WMS should put for shipment those products that arrived at the warehouse earlier. To distribute orders to stores, it is advisable to use the following shipping technology. Orders received by managers during the day begin to be collected in the evening. Collected orders are placed in the forwarding area (air temperature from 0 to +5 °C), where they are checked and immediately after checking they are loaded into a refrigerator - the temperature in the body must correspond to the temperature in the main storage area.Before the morning delivery to stores, the products are stored in the back of a refrigerated truck connected to the warehouse's power supply system.
According to SP No. 4695-88 “Sanitary Rules for Refrigerators”, the quality of deep-frozen products shipped from the warehouse must meet the requirements formulated in industry normative and technical documents (GOSTs and technical conditions) developed for each type of product, Immediately before loading the goods It is necessary to measure the temperature of the product in the refrigerator. The measurement data is entered into the TTN and the “Checklist of cargo and air temperature in the body of the refrigerated truck” (the document is drawn up in two copies, both copies are given to the driver). The temperature of deep-frozen products should not exceed -18 °C. Therefore, it is recommended to reduce the time spent by collected orders in the expedition area and the time of loading products into the body of a vehicle to a technological minimum.
Equipment for working in refrigerated chambers
Due to high environmental requirements, forklifts equipped with electric motors are mainly used in food warehouses. At air temperatures below +20 °C, the capacity of electric batteries begins to decrease (approximately 1% per 1 °C). Practice shows that forklifts, which at normal air temperatures can operate without recharging for up to 8 hours, operate in refrigerated chambers for no more than 5-6 hours. During intensive loading and unloading operations, this can create significant inconvenience. In addition, frequent recharging of batteries reduces their service life - batteries are designed for a certain number of charges. The operating time of the loader can be increased by using high-capacity batteries.
The operation of loading and unloading equipment in rooms with low air temperatures may be difficult due to the following factors:
malfunction of electronic components;
increasing oil viscosity (increasing power consumption);
increasing the fragility of metal parts (especially in welding areas).
In addition, when working in refrigerated rooms, forklift operators have to work in warm clothes, hats, and thick shoes. This makes it difficult to control the machine, makes drivers less sensitive to the behavior of the equipment, and increases their fatigue. Therefore, in rooms where deep-frozen products are stored, it is recommended to use equipment specially adapted to work at low temperatures. Today, the range of all major manufacturers includes models adapted for operation at air temperatures from -18 to -35 ° C (the so-called “winter” or “cold” version). The difference in cost between conventional forklifts and forklifts adapted to work in refrigerated chambers can reach 80 thousand or more rubles. Therefore, some entrepreneurs refuse to purchase such equipment. Standard forklifts can operate at low temperatures, but this significantly reduces their service life. Plus, some manufacturers of loading and unloading equipment refuse to provide a warranty for unadapted machines that were operated in refrigeration chambers. Therefore, for my part, I can recommend using only equipment specially adapted for this purpose for working in freezers.
ABC of the warehouse
Dock shelters (opening sealers) - mechanical devices that are used in warehouses when unloading or loading cars to reduce heat loss and protect against dust.
To reduce the formation of condensation on the structural elements of the loader, the following recommendations must be followed:
Loader dwell timeinside and outside the refrigeration chamber should be the same.
Continuous vehicle dwell timein the refrigerator should not exceed 30 minutes.
Parking time or parking the forklift (inoperative) in the freezer should not exceed 10 minutes.
Temperature regime.Do not operate forklifts at temperatures below -35 °C.
Manufacturer's recommendations.When operating loading equipment, follow the recommendations formulated by its direct manufacturer.
Working in the freezer.If the forklift has to frequently move in and out of the freezer, the operator should try to keep the machine in a warm room as long as possible and in the freezer as little as possible (it is advisable that the temperature of the external structural elements of the machine does not fall below 0 ° C).
If it is not possible to ensure such a regime, work can be organized so that the machine is kept in the freezer for as long as possible and in a warm room as little as possible (it is advisable that the temperature of the external structural elements of the machine does not rise above 0 °C).
Types of dock shelters
Dock shelters come in curtain, cushion, inflatable and combination types. Curtain dock shelters are relatively low cost and easy to install. With the help of inflatable dock shelters, the loading area can be closed almost hermetically (regardless of the size of the truck). Therefore, they are recommended for use in the loading areas of refrigerated and freezer warehouses. Cushion dock shelters come in two types: with fixed section sizes and with an inflatable top section. Devices of the first type are recommended for use in warehouses that work with vehicles of the same type. If the warehouse plans to unload trucks of different heights, it is advisable to equip them with dock shelters with an inflatable upper section.
Deep freezing is one of the most popular storage conditions on the market for some basic types of food: meat and meat products, fish and fish products, frozen vegetables and fruits, ice cream, etc. The main advantage of such conditions is the relatively long shelf life of products. So, for beef it can be 1 year, for pork - 6 months, etc. This article discusses the basic rules that must be followed when handling and storing food products in deep-frozen conditions.
Deep frozen products
Deep freezing refers to the storage of food at an air temperature of -18 °C and below. Some categories of products (for example, ice cream) are stored at lower temperatures -24 °C and below. Currently, the storage of deep-frozen products is regulated by two main documents:
- SP No. 4695-88 “Sanitary rules for refrigerators” dated September 29, 1988;
- SP No. 2.3.6,1066-01 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for trade organizations and the circulation of food raw materials and food products in them” dated September 6, 2001, as amended on May 3, 2007.
Reception of deep-frozen products
In modern warehouses, it is recommended to accept deep-frozen products using dock shelters. This is done to prevent warm air from the street from entering the car body and the storage area. Products are unloaded immediately inside the warehouse - into the expedition (reception) zone, where the temperature is maintained from O to +5 °C (not higher than +10 °C). There are no restrictions on unloading time, but qualified warehouse employees try to unload and release the car as quickly as possible. Abroad, refrigerators with a so-called sliding floor are often used to transport deep-frozen products. Using such devices, the driver can independently unload up to 30 pallets into the expedition area. The duration of this process does not exceed several minutes.
Immediately after the goods are unloaded into the forwarding area, they are identified, accepted (entered into the WMS database) and sent to the main storage area, where the temperature is maintained at -18 °C and below. Difficulties in accepting deep-frozen products may arise for the following reasons:
- lack of necessary accompanying documentation;
- non-compliance with temperature conditions for transportation;
- the inability to read the barcode printed on the packaging with a scanner;
- violation of the integrity of the packaging, discrepancy between the goods received in fact and the technical specification, etc.
- product temperature before loading;
- temperature in the body of the refrigerator supplied for loading;
- temperature in the body of the refrigerator that brought the products to the warehouse.
3. Difficulties in identifying cargo. Sometimes it is not immediately possible to accurately identify deep-frozen products. Therefore, it is very desirable that the warehouse WMS provide the ability to accept goods as unknown - upon such acceptance, they are assigned codes X0001, X0002, etc. After the product is recognized and fully identified, it is registered in the system as known, a label is made and affixed with the corresponding barcode.
If for any reason deep-frozen products cannot be immediately identified and accepted, then in any case it must be transported to the main storage area and only after that begin to understand the situation. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the requirement of SP No. 4695-88 “Sanitary rules for refrigerators” (clause 7.9), according to which products “in a contaminated state with obvious signs of spoilage, affected by mold or having foreign odors that are unusual for them” must be placed in a separate room specifically designed for storing defective goods.
Placing goods in warehouse
The basic principles that must be followed when storing food products are formulated in SP No. 2.3.6.1066-01 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for trade organizations and the circulation of food raw materials and food products in them.” According to this document, when storing food products, “the rules of commodity proximity and storage standards must be observed. Products that have a specific odor should be stored separately from products that perceive odors.” There are no clearer instructions regarding the commodity proximity of products in Russian regulatory documents today. However, it is considered (for example) that meat and meat products should not be stored in the same freezer compartment as fish or fish products. Today, a number of restrictions on product proximity are outdated - modern packaging for meat, fish, frozen vegetables, etc. almost completely prevents the penetration of any odors into the premises.
In this regard, the National Meat Association turned to Rospotrebnadzor with a request to clarify the rules for storing various products in the same room. The response letter stated that current legislation allows “the joint storage of frozen raw meat and raw fish and deep-frozen semi-finished products in industrial packaging.” At the same time, “it is not permitted to store raw foods and semi-finished products together with prepared food products.”
If there is a significant turnover of goods, it is advisable to trust the WMS to determine the location of a particular product item in the warehouse. When it comes to storing deep-frozen products, it is necessary to take into account the turnover of the product and its shelf life. The system tries to place goods with higher turnover and shorter shelf life as close to the expedition zone as possible. WMS determines the turnover of goods independently, the expiration date is indicated on the product label and is determined automatically by the system when reading the bar code or is entered manually by warehouse employees.
Collection of orders and shipment
Deep-frozen products have a significant shelf life, but it is recommended to minimize the time they are in the warehouse - this allows you to increase the residual shelf life. This circumstance must be taken into account when placing orders. First of all, WMS should put for shipment those products that arrived at the warehouse earlier. To distribute orders to stores, it is advisable to use the following shipping technology. Orders received by managers during the day begin to be collected in the evening. Collected orders are placed in the forwarding area (air temperature from 0 to +5 °C), where they are checked and immediately after checking they are loaded into a refrigerator - the temperature in the body must correspond to the temperature in the main storage area. Before the morning delivery to stores, the products are stored in the back of a refrigerated truck connected to the warehouse's power supply system.
According to SP No. 4695-88 “Sanitary Rules for Refrigerators”, the quality of deep-frozen products shipped from the warehouse must meet the requirements formulated in industry normative and technical documents (GOSTs and technical conditions) developed for each type of product, Immediately before loading the goods It is necessary to measure the temperature of the product in the refrigerator. The measurement data is entered into the TTN and the “Checklist of cargo and air temperature in the body of the refrigerated truck” (the document is drawn up in two copies, both copies are given to the driver). The temperature of deep-frozen products should not exceed -18 °C. Therefore, it is recommended to reduce the time spent by collected orders in the expedition area and the time of loading products into the body of a vehicle to a technological minimum.
Equipment for working in refrigerated chambers
Due to high environmental requirements, forklifts equipped with electric motors are mainly used in food warehouses. At air temperatures below +20 °C, the capacity of electric batteries begins to decrease (approximately 1% per 1 °C). Practice shows that forklifts, which at normal air temperatures can operate without recharging for up to 8 hours, operate in refrigerated chambers for no more than 5-6 hours. During intensive loading and unloading operations, this can create significant inconvenience. In addition, frequent recharging of batteries reduces their service life - batteries are designed for a certain number of charges. The operating time of the loader can be increased by using high-capacity batteries. The operation of loading and unloading equipment in rooms with low air temperatures may be difficult due to the following factors:
- moisture condensation on the surfaces of the loader (often followed by freezing);
- malfunction of electronic components;
- increasing oil viscosity (increasing power consumption);
- increasing the fragility of metal parts (especially in welding areas).
ABC of the warehouse
Dock shelters (opening sealers)
Mechanical devices that are used in warehouses when unloading or loading vehicles to reduce heat loss and protect against dust.
To reduce the formation of condensation on the structural elements of the loader, the following recommendations must be followed:
- Loader dwell time inside and outside the refrigeration chamber should be the same.
- Continuous vehicle dwell time in the refrigerator should not exceed 30 minutes.
- Parking or forklift parking time(inoperative) in the freezer should not exceed 10 minutes.
- Temperature regime. Do not operate forklifts at temperatures below -35 °C.
- Manufacturer's recommendations. When operating loading equipment, follow the recommendations formulated by its direct manufacturer.
- Working in the freezer. If the forklift has to frequently move in and out of the freezer, the operator should try to keep the machine in a warm room as long as possible and in the freezer as little as possible (it is advisable that the temperature of the external structural elements of the machine does not fall below 0 ° C). If it is not possible to ensure such a regime, work can be organized so that the machine is kept in the freezer for as long as possible and in a warm room as little as possible (it is advisable that the temperature of the external structural elements of the machine does not rise above 0 °C).
Dock shelters come in curtain, cushion, inflatable and combination types. Curtain dock shelters are relatively low cost and easy to install. With the help of inflatable dock shelters, the loading area can be closed almost hermetically (regardless of the size of the truck). Therefore, they are recommended for use in the loading areas of refrigerated and freezer warehouses. Cushion dock shelters come in two types: with fixed section sizes and with an inflatable top section. Devices of the first type are recommended for use in warehouses that work with vehicles of the same type. If the warehouse plans to unload trucks of different heights, it is advisable to equip them with dock shelters with an inflatable upper section.
Maxim Dragavtsev, General Director of the distribution center of ABH Miratorg in Domodedovo
If previously frozen products could only be seen in supermarkets, today every housewife freezes everything on her own and leaves everything “until better times.” But the trouble is that not everyone knows the rules for freezing food, how long and under what conditions they can be stored. Some people don’t even think about how the structure of products changes when frozen, whether they lose their properties, or whether they can spoil. You will learn about this and more in this article.
How does freezing occur?
Complete freezing in refrigerators with low temperatures occurs in 2-3 hours. With normal freezing Products are frozen in three stages:- From +20 to zero. This stage is called preparatory. By gradually cooling the product is prepared for freezing.
- From zero to -5 degrees. This is an intermediate stage. Here the temperature fluctuations are insignificant. The main thing at this stage is the process of crystallization of the liquid in the tissues of the product.
- From 5 to 18 degrees with a minus sign. The final stage. At this stage, everything that was not completed earlier is frozen.
Rules for freezing food
In order not to spoil the product and preserve it for a long time, you need to follow simple freezing rules:- Products for freezing must be fresh. If something has already gone bad, don't expect the freezer to do a miracle. It is better to decide immediately after purchase what you will cook and what you will leave “until better times.”
- Then the product needs wash and dry well, cut into pieces or boil.
- Select suitable dishes or special bags (the main thing is to keep the food away from air and moisture) and lay out the prepared product in small portions. Why small? If you need to cook ten cutlets, you won’t defrost two kilograms of minced meat. Therefore, it is better to share foods in small portions.
- So that they lose less vitamins and do not become chapped, try do not allow a lot of air into the packaging. But do not fill the containers to the top: when frozen, food expands in volume and can lift the lid.
Useful properties and freezing
If we talk about frozen cucumbers and those bought in the supermarket in winter, then the former, of course, has much more beneficial properties. After all, greenhouse products that are sold out of season are processed and lose most of their properties. But if you compare a product just picked from the garden and a defrosted one, then the first one is, of course, healthier.Vitamin C is lost the most during freezing. But any other processing also kills it. Thiamine (vitamin B1) is lost during freezing, approximately 25%, riboflavin (B2) - 4-18%. Freezing has no effect on vitamin A, but long-term storage kills it. Therefore, do not keep frozen carrots for too long, cook them.
Shelf life of frozen foods
Nothing lasts forever, including frozen foods. Even with the most proper storage, food will still spoil sooner or later. Here is a sample list of expiration dates for frozen foods:- minced meat - up to 2 months;
- sausages - up to 2 months;
- homemade meat and fish dishes - up to 3-4 months;
- small fish - maximum 3 months, large fish - twice as long;
- meat of rabbit, duck, goose and hare - six months;
- turkey and chicken meat - 9 months;
- liver - 3 months;
- milk and dairy products - from six months to a year;
- vegetables - 10-12 months, in soup sets - 6-7 months;
- mushrooms - 5-6 months;
- fruits and berries - up to a year;
- greens - 3-4 months;
- flour products - up to 3 months.
- Before freezing, the product is prepared so that after defrosting it does not need to be washed.
- Freshly prepared dishes should be cooled to room temperature, and only then sent to the freezer.
- Only freeze fresh foods; those that have begun to spoil should be cooked immediately.
- For better preservation, food should be frozen quickly.
- The packaging in which this or that product will be stored must be airtight.
- Label each bag with the frozen date so you know when it reaches its expiration date.
- If food has defrosted (due to a power outage), it cannot be frozen a second time. It is better to prepare their dishes right away.
Deep-frozen products
This term is more common on an industrial scale. Deep-frozen products include plant products and semi-finished products.In stores you can also find frozen berries, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and various mixtures. Semi-finished products also occupy a special place today: cutlets, dumplings, pizza crusts and much more.
Blast freezing: technology
Blast freezing is very different from what everyone is used to. There are no separate stages; the product is cooled very quickly by reducing the temperature to -30-35 degrees and increasing the air flow. With this technology the product is exposed to frosty air from all sides and freezes much faster.Advantages and disadvantages
Quick freezers have many advantages:- products lose 2-3 times less beneficial properties than during conventional freezing;
- food freezing time is reduced from 3 to 10 times;
- production area is reduced by one and a half to two times;
- we need 25-30% less staff;
- it pays off by 15-20%.
"Shock" equipment
For blast freezing the following quick freezers are used:- Fluidizing - most often used for freezing chopped vegetable and fruit raw materials.
- Conveyor - used for freezing prepared foods.
- Cradles - used for freezing packaged semi-finished products from fish, meat and poultry.
- Spiral - designed for freezing portioned dishes.
Housewives about freezing
Yana:“When I bought a refrigerator with a freezer, I tried to freeze everything I could get my hands on. I put everything in small portions and defrosted it every other day to try it. I liked the frozen melons and watermelons the most. Even now, when I defrost them in winter, there is such a smell in the house...”Nika:
“I am confident that freezing preserves more beneficial properties than any other canning method. Therefore, I put everything in my freezer: greens, mushrooms, herbs, fruits, berries. It's incredibly convenient."
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